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On Saturday afternoon on April Fools Day, at 12.30 pm, both Manchester City and Liverpool will aim to avoid looking foolish when they meet at the Etihad Stadium. It can only be billed as a ‘must win’ for the Citizens, who are 8 points adrift of league leaders Arsenal. They have one game in hand so a win here would see them 5 points back but with a better goal difference. A defeat or even a draw would have to be seen as the title going to the Gunners.
Goals no problem for City
Manchester City have now won their last two matches 6-0 and 7-0 and are in the Semi-Finals of the FA Cup and the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League. In the hotly-contested Premier League fixtures, they’ve won 4 back-to-back at home and are in a great place to build on that form and beat Liverpool. Matches are stacking up for City but that is what happens when you have that much success.
Pep Guardiola’s side have scored 12 goals in the last 4 home matches and conceded just 3 goals. Despite this great record, they’ve only kept a clean sheet at the Etihad 38% of the time with 5 clean sheets in their 13 home matches. They’ve not failed to score once though, this season, at home. That is a key stat for this encounter because Liverpool have failed to score in nearly half of their away matches.
Reds will have to be at their best
Liverpool are now 6th in the table but a defeat here and a draw between Brentford and Brighton could see them slide back down to 8th in the table. They’re 5 points behind Newcastle and 7 points from 4th placed Tottenham but they do have two games in hand over these teams. A win is essential for Liverpool if they want to keep the pressure up for Champions League qualification this season.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have only kept a clean sheet away from home 3 times in 13 matches and City have scored in every home match so Liverpool know that they’re going to need goals in this one. The problem is Liverpool have failed to score in 46% of their away matches. They will also know that City have scored in both halves 62% of the time. Liverpool need to be at their best. That’s for certain.
Merseysiders hold H2H edge over Mancunians
The Merseyside club have a good recent record against City. If we take away the EFL Cup win for City then Liverpool have won the previous 3 head-to-head meetings. 2 of those were at Anfield with one in the Community Shield and one in the Premier League. The other match was at the Etihad, where Liverpool beat City 3-2 in the FA Cup.
The last 6 meetings between the two clubs at the Etihad have produced goals galore with an average of 4 goals per game. Those statistics suggest we could be in for an absolute thriller.
Manchester City vs Liverpool betting tips
I can’t see anything but a Manchester City win for this one but I also think we’ll see goals in this. As mentioned above, we’ve seen nearly 4 goals per game in this fixture over recent times and both teams really need a win to push them closer to their season goals. I see no real value in backing City outright but we can get City to win and over 2.5 goals for a general 5/4. I’ll also go with BTTS and City to win at 23/10 with Bet365.
City win and Over 2.5 goals @ 5/4 with Betfred
City win and BTTS @ 21/10 with Bet365
Bet £10 Get £20 + MAN CITY TO WIN, OVER 2.5 GOALS, HAALAND TO SCORE 1ST – 4/1 here!
All odds are accurate at the time of writing.
